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Carlyle Group is exploring a €3bn sale of Dutch salt and chemicals producer Nobian, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nobian, owned by Carlyle and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, produces high-purity salt, chlorine and other speciality chemicals for use in applications including solar panels, battery storage systems and insulation.
The US buyout group has held discussions with investment banks as it prepares for a potential sale process, which is expected to start next year, the people said. Carlyle and Nobian declined to comment.
Carlyle and GIC acquired the salt producer in 2018 when they bought the chemicals division of Dutch conglomerate Akzo Nobel for €10.1bn in what remains Carlyle’s biggest European deal.
The partners renamed the Akzo Nobel chemicals arm Nouryon, and then spun out Nobian in 2021.
Last year Nobian made earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of about €400mn, the people said.
Under chief executive Michael Koenig, Nobian has set targets to reduce its direct carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2040, while transitioning its energy intensive mining and processing activities to wind and solar power.
Nobian is among the largest industrial emitters in the Netherlands and signed an agreement with the Dutch government last year to work together to reduce its carbon emissions faster.
Carlyle has not shied away from investing in energy-intensive European businesses that need to decarbonise.
In 2019, it acquired 37 per cent of Spanish integrated oil and gas company Cepsa. In June, it bought a portfolio of oil and gas projects in Italy, Egypt and Croatia that will form the basis of a new Mediterranean-focused producer.
In each case, Carlyle requires portfolio companies to set targets to reduce to emissions in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Part of Carlyle’s bet is that by cutting emissions, its companies will be more valuable when the fund needs to exit.
“It’s a part of our investment thesis,” Megan Starr, Carlyle’s global head of corporate affairs, told the Financial Times in June. “What’s the maximum feasible decarbonisation potential that we can implement and execute over our hold period.”
While the principal uses for Nobian’s salt-based chemicals remain everyday products such as textiles, pharmaceuticals and disinfectants, they are also vital for clean energy solutions such as electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines.
The business has mined salt in the Netherlands since 1918 and is also exploring using underground salt caverns to store hydrogen, natural gas and renewable energy in the form of compressed air.
Nobian has production sites in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark and employs about 1,600 people.